This week's construction-related closures

Apologies for a later post on this than normal; we'll call it the consequence of a long weekend and time taken off. Without further delay, here are the closures planned for the next week: 

I-10

• Sunday-Friday, April 6-11. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Huebner Road and UTSA Boulevard (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Sunday-Friday, April 6-11. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Frontage road, both directions between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Monday-Friday, April 6-10. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Frontage road, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Friday-Monday, April 10-13. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. continuous. Main lanes, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews lay asphalt. This closure includes closures of all ramps along this stretch, as needed. No more than two ramps in each direction will be closed at one time.

I-35

• Monday-Thursday, April 6-16. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road between McCullough Avenue and North Main Street (downtown San Antonio). The left lane will close while crews do bridge work.
• Wednesday-Friday, April 8-10. 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between Post Road and Conrads-Kohlenberg (northeast Comal County). The right two lanes will close while crews prepare to open the new northbound entrance ramp from FM 306.
• Wednesday-Friday, April 8-10. 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Conrads-Kohlenberg and FM 306. The right lane will close while crews install barrier.
• Thursday-Friday, April 9-10. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Southbound main lanes between Lanark and Fairdale (northeast San Antonio). Two right lanes will close while crews move and reset barrier.
• Thursday-Saturday, April 9-11. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. North-to-south turnaround at Salado Creek (northeast San Antonio). The turnaround will close while crews work on support structure foundations. Traffic will use the next available cross street to turn around.
• Wednesday-Friday, April 8-10. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Frontage road, both directions, between Splashtown and Binz-Engleman (northeast San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews set temporary light poles.

U.S. Hwy 281

• Monday-Friday, April 6-17. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Nakoma Drive and Bitters Road (north-central San Antonio). The two left lanes will close while crews work on the center median barrier.
• Wednesday-Wednesday, April 8-15. 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily. Northbound main lanes between the Atascosa County line and FM 1937 (south Bexar County). The right lane will close while crews recycle the top layer of asphalt.
• Friday, April 10. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Main lanes, both directions, between the Guadalupe River and the Bexar-Comal county line (Comal County). The left lane will close while crews work on the cable median barrier.

Loop 1604

• Monday, March 30-Thursday, April 30. 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. continuous. Turnarounds, both directions, at Braun Road (northwest San Antonio). The turnarounds will close for a month while crews build bridge support columns. Traffic will move through the intersection to turn around.
• Monday-Friday, April 6-10. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Main lanes, both directions, between Bandera Road and Culebra Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close as needed for survey work.

Other roads

• Monday, March 30-Friday, May 1. 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. continuous. Walnut Avenue, both directions, between Floral and Wood avenues (New Braunfels). All lanes will close for a month while crews build a drain structure. Local traffic will have access to businesses on this block via Lockner and Howard roads.
• Wednesday-Thursday, April 8-9. 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Spur 536 (Roosevelt), both directions, at E. White (south San Antonio). Traffic will be reduced to a single lane in each direction while crews install drain structures.
• Monday-Friday, April 13-17. 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. continuous. Wurzbach Parkway, both directions, at Blanco Road (north-central San Antonio). All lanes of the overpass bridge will close while crews repair bridge joints. Traffic will exit Blanco Road, continue through the intersection, and re-enter the parkway.
• Tuesday-Wednesday, April 14-15. 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. Boerne Stage Road, both directions, at I-10 (Leon Springs). All lanes will close while crews set barrier. Traffic will turn right onto the frontage road, travel to the next available cross street and turn around.
• Wednesday-Friday, April 8-11. 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Fredericksburg Road, both directions, between Louis Pasteur and Data Point (Medical Center). Alternating lanes will close for road work.

 All closures are pending weather.

Wurzbach Parkway progress

The question persists: When will the segment of Wurzbach Parkway between West Avenue and U.S. 281 open?

The short answer is "this summer", but there's more to it than that.

We are not going to open any segments of the Parkway - when the last section, spanning from West Avenue to Jones-Maltsberger, is ready to open, we'll open the whole shebang. And that is slated to happen this summer.

In the meantime, you'll see activity increase along U.S. Hwy 281 between Nakoma and Bitters. Next week (and most of the week after), crews will close one lane in each direction overnight each night to do work on drill shafts in the median area. These drill shafts will serve as foundations for overhead highway sign mounts and for support structures for the future south-to-north turnaround at Nakoma.

Meanwhile, road crews are working hard to get the new northbound entrance ramp from Nakoma and Wurzbach Parkway built and open for use. The new ramp is located fairly near the current temporary ramp, so folks driving the road won't notice much difference in their commute each day. Once that new ramp is opened, however, Williams Brothers will shut down - permanently - the left lane of the frontage road approaching Bitters Road. That lane is excess, and much-needed drain structures will take its place.

All this work will take just a few short months, and when complete we'll be able to open the whole Parkway. We will not be opening this last span in segments. We have several ask if we'll open the segment from West Avenue to U.S. 281 before we open up the overpass at U.S. 281. No, we will not!

The biggest reason for this is to eliminate the chance someone drives into the work zone or drives over an unfinished overpass at U.S. 281. We will open the parkway when it's ready, but it's not yet ready! We still have a lot of work on the overpass (particularly the eastbound side) as well as some of the entrance and exit ramps.

The second question that persists is whether or not the Parkway will have direct connectors - an interchange - at U.S. 281. No, it won't. It will have ramps leading to the U.S. 281 frontage road with stop signs at the end of each ramp, but we will not build direct connectors. The biggest reason for this is the tight height restrictions due to our proximity to the airport and the flight path. The parkway is as tall as it can be, and what you see out there now is pretty much what you'll be getting.

To sum up, we'll have the last segment of Wurzbach Parkway opened this summer. By the way, since the original estimate was to have the job done by the end of 2015, we'll have this project finished several months early. Good news for everyone!

Next week's construction-related closures

I-10

• Friday-Monday, March 27-30. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. continuous. Eastbound main lanes between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close, two lanes at a time, while crews restripe the road and shift traffic to its final configuration.
• Friday-Monday, March 27-30. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. continuous. Eastbound frontage road between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews do road work.
• Saturday, March 28. 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Westbound main lanes between Roland Avenue and Pine Street (east San Antonio). The right lane will close while crews move barrier and restripe the road. This closure will result in the long-term closure of the Gevers Road exit and will reopen the Pine Street exit. Traffic headed to Gevers Road will exit Pine Street and turn around.
• Sunday-Monday, March 29-30.  9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. Westbound main lanes between Roland Avenue and Pine Street (east San Antonio). The right lane will close while crews move barrier and restripe the road. This closure will result in the long-term closure of the Gevers Road exit and will reopen the Pine Street exit. Traffic headed to Gevers Road will exit Pine Street and turn around.

• Sunday-Friday, March 29-April 3. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Huebner Road and UTSA Boulevard (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Sunday-Friday, March 29-April 3. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Frontage road, both directions between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Monday-Friday, March 30-April 3. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Frontage road, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.

I-35

• Saturday-Sunday, March 28-29. 11 p.m. until 3 p.m. Southbound main lanes between Eisenhauer and George Beach (northeast San Antonio). All lanes will close while crews move the southbound main lanes to a final configuration. This work will result in the exit ramp to southbound I-410 being permanently moved to the right side of the road.
• Sunday, March 29. 3 a.m. until 11 a.m. Northbound main lanes between George Beach and Rittiman Road (northeast San Antonio). The left lane will close while crews work on a new overhead sign board mount.
• Sunday, March 29. 3 p.m. Southbound connector to southbound I-410 (northeast San Antonio). The ramp will be permanently moved to the right side of the road. Drivers should remain alert and attentive regarding this major traffic change.
• Monday-Friday, March 30-April 3. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Northbound frontage road between Splashtown and Binz-Engleman (east San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews set up temporary light poles.
• Monday-Friday, March 30-April 3. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road between Binz-Engleman and Shipman Drive (east San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews set up temporary light poles.
• Monday-Friday, March 30-April 3. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road at Salado Creek (east San Antonio). The right lane will close while crews set up temporary light poles.
• Sunday-Friday, March 29-April 3. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road between Rittiman Road and George Beach (northeast San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews do road work.
• Sunday-Friday, March 29-April 3. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road at Fratt Road (northeast San Antonio). The left lane will close while crews do concrete work.
• Sunday-Friday, March 29-April 3. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Northbound exit ramp to westbound I-410 (Windcrest). The right lanes will close while crews place guardrail and do concrete work.
• Sunday-Friday, March 30-April 3. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between George Beach and Rittiman Road (northeast San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews do roadwork.

I-410

• Sunday, March 29. 6 a.m. until 1 p.m. Eastbound exit ramp to northbound I-35 (Windcrest). The right lane will close while crews repair crash cushions.
• Sunday-Friday, March 29-April 3. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Northbound connector to northbound I-35 (northeast San Antonio). All lanes will close while crews move barrier. Traffic will exit Space Center and move through the Rittiman Road intersection, then enter the northbound I-35 main lanes.
• Sunday-Friday, March 29-April 3. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Northbound frontage road between Binz-Engleman and Rittiman Road (northeast San Antonio). The left lane will close to provide access for trucking and to move barrier.

U.S. Hwy 281

• Monday-Tuesday, March 30-31. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Southbound main lanes between Wurzbach Parkway and Nakoma Drive (north-central San Antonio). The two right lanes will close while crews repair barrier and crash cushions.
• Monday-Tuesday, March 30-31. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Northbound exit to Bitters Road (north-central San Antonio). The left lane of the exit ramp will close while crews rebuild a crash cushion.

Loop 1604

• Monday-Friday, March 30-April 3. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Main lanes, both directions, between Bandera Road and Culebra Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close as needed for survey work.
• Monday, March 30. 9 a.m. Turnarounds, both directions, at Braun Road (northwest San Antonio). The turnarounds will close for a month while crews build bridge support columns. Traffic will move through the intersection to turn around.

Other roads

• Monday, March 30. 9 a.m. Walnut Avenue, both directions, between Floral and Wood avenues (New Braunfels). All lanes will close for a month while crews build a drain inlet. Local traffic will have access to businesses on this block via Lockner and Howard roads.
• Monday-Thursday, March 30-April 2. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Northbound U.S. Highway 181 between Old Corpus Christi Highway and Loop 1604 (southeast Bexar County). The left lane will close while crews repair cable median barrier.
• Monday-Thursday, March 30-April 2. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Southbound U.S. Highway 181 between South Presa and Max Road (southeast Bexar County). The left lane will close while crews repair cable median barrier.
• Monday-Thursday, March 30-April 2. 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Medical Drive, both directions, between Ewing Halsell and Fairhaven (Medical Center). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Monday-Thursday, March 30-April 2. 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Fredericksburg Road, both directions, between Louis Pasteur and Data Point (Medical Center). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Monday-Friday, March 30-April 3. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Ralph Fair Road between Old Fredericksburg Road and I-10 (Fair Oaks Ranch). Alternating lanes will close while crews rebuild the intersections.

All closures are pending weather.

For #NWZAW: Major construction zones for this weekend

It's National Work Zone Awareness Week (#NWZAW) for the transportation industry, and hopefully you're seeing some of the talk about work zone safety on your social media news feeds, on billboards during your commute or on the television. Hey, you might even be hearing about it on the radio.

The bottom line is this: the roads you drive on each day are our offices. Can you imagine a steady stream of 50- or 60- or 70-miles-per-hour traffic along the corridor between your cubicle and the water cooler at your office? That's what our guys experience. Every. Single. Day.

That's why we ask you to slow down when you're driving through a work zone. That's our office, and we'd like to go home safely each day.

Three of our "offices" will be of particular concern this weekend. Here we get to the meat of this post - a pair of major closures that will yield major traffic shifts in San Antonio.

I-35

We will have all lanes of southbound I-35 closed between Rittiman Road and George Beach Saturday night and through Sunday morning. This will allow crews to move barrier and restripe the main lanes to follow the new permanent southbound main lanes of I-35.

The new lanes of I-35 are shifted significantly, allowing traffic to southbound I-410 to begin exiting to the right side of the road. In this area, many trucks coming from Rittiman Road sweep across several lanes of traffic to reach the old ramp. These trucks will have access to the new right-side ramp directly from Rittiman, helping to keep the flow of traffic on southbound I-35 flowing.

I-10 (northwest SA)

Beginning Friday night, all but one eastbound lane of I-10 will close between UTSA Blvd and Huebner Rd while crews restripe the road. This closure includes an alternating rotation of exit and entrance ramps. All lanes will reopen in time for Monday's morning commute.

On the frontage roads we will have officers directing traffic at the intersection of DeZavala Road. Expect delays on DeZavala as officers will likely give priority to the I-10 traffic.

If this is your planned travel area, you may wish to add a solid half hour to your travel plans. When the work is finished, the main lanes will open up to five full lanes plus an auxiliary lane over DeZavala.

I-10 (east SA)

Over on the east side of San Antonio, just east of downtown, we'll have a day-long closure Saturday on the westbound main lanes of I-10 between Roland Avenue and Pine Street. The right lane will close while crews move barrier and restripe the road.

That work will begin 7 a.m. Saturday and will wrap up by 7 p.m., and again Sunday night at 9 until 5:30 a.m. Monday.

Why all at once?

We get the question often enough, we may as well answer the question now: Why in the world would we schedule so many major closures across the city at the same time?

The answer: With the holidays and events in line for the month of April, failure to perform the traffic shifts scheduled for this weekend would mean pushing this work back until May. That would delay these projects a full month.

Some of the work we're doing this weekend was indeed scheduled for earlier weekends, but was pushed back because of weather. So ... here we are. We are faced with tough decisions, but this is the most responsible course to take in order to provide the congestion relief drivers in these areas are clamoring for. 

Next week's construction-related closures

I-10

• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Huebner Road and UTSA Boulevard (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Frontage road, both directions between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Monday-Friday, March 23-27. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Frontage road, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Friday-Monday, March 27-30. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. continuous. Eastbound main lanes between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close, two lanes at a time, while crews restripe the road and shift traffic to its final configuration.
• Friday-Monday, March 27-30. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. continuous. Eastbound frontage road between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road (northwest San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews do road work.

I-35

• Monday-Friday, March 23-27. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Northbound frontage road between Splashtown and Binz-Engleman (east San Antonio). The left lane will close while crews set up temporary light poles.
• Monday-Friday, March 23-27. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road between Binz-Engleman and Seguin roads (east San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews set up temporary light poles.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Rittiman and George Beach (northeast San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews move barrier.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nighty. Southbound frontage road between Rittiman Road and George Beach (northeast San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews repair the roadway.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road between Rittiman Road and George Beach (northeast San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews repair the roadway.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Southbound frontage road at Fratt Road (northeast San Antonio). The left lane will close while crews do concrete work.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Northbound exit ramp to westbound I-410 (Windcrest). The right lanes will close while crews place guardrail and do concrete work.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between George Beach and Rittiman Road (northeast San Antonio). Alternating lanes will close while crews do roadwork.
• Tuesday-Friday, March 24-27. 8 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between FM 306 and Conrads-Kohlenberg Road (north New Braunfels). The two right lanes will close while crews move barrier and lay asphalt to open the new entrance ramp from FM 306.
• Tuesday-Friday, March 24-27. 8 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Conrads-Kohlenberg Road and FM 306 (north New Braunfels). The right lane will close while crews place barrier.

I-410

• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. daily. Eastbound exit ramp to northbound I-35 (Windcrest). The right lane will close while crews repair crash cushions.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Northbound connector to northbound I-35 (northeast San Antonio). All lanes will close while crews move barrier. Traffic will exit Space Center and move through the Rittiman Road intersection, then enter the northbound I-35 main lanes.
• Sunday-Friday, March 22-27. 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily. Northbound frontage road between Binz-Engleman and Rittiman Road (northeast San Antonio). The left lane will close to provide access for trucking and to move barrier.

U.S. Hwy 281

• Wednesday-Friday, March 25-27. 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between I-410 and Hildebrand (north-central San Antonio). Three right lanes will close while crews repair the roadway.
• Friday-Sunday, March 27-29. 8 p.m. until 10 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between Hildebrand and I-410 (north-central San Antonio). Alternating lanes, three at a time, will close while crews repair the roadway.
• Sunday-Monday, March 29-30. 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. Northbound main lanes between Hildebrand and I-410 (north-central San Antonio). Alternating lanes, three at a time, will close while crews repair the roadway.

Other roads

• Monday-Monday, March 9-30. 8 a.m-5 p.m. continuous. Alameda Street, both directions, at Loop 1604 (northwest San Antonio). All lanes will close for three weeks while crews build the roadway. Traffic will reach Alameda Street off of Braun Road.
• Monday, March 23. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Highway 46, both directions, at Business 87 (Boerne). Alternating lanes will close while crews reset barrier. Traffic will be intermittently halted for this work.
• Monday-Friday, March 23-27. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Northbound U.S. Highway 181 between Loop 1604 and Flying R Ranch Road (southeast Bexar County). The left lane will close while crews repair cable median barrier.
• Monday-Friday, March 23-27. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Southbound U.S. Highway 181 between South Presa and Max Road (southeast Bexar County). The left lane will close while crews repair cable median barrier.
• Monday-Monday, March 23-30. 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Medical Drive, both directions, between Ewing Halsell and Fairhaven (Medical Center). Alternating lanes will close for road work.
• Monday-Monday, March 23-30. 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Fredericksburg Road, both directions, between Louis Pasteur and Data Point (Medical Center). Alternating lanes will close for road work.

All closures are pending weather.